The present invention relates to a card issuer, more particularly to a card issuer which is capable of selecting and supplying magnetic cards (optionally having embosses or magnetic strips) one by one from a stack of a plurality of cards.
Apparatus for selecting and supplying one card from a large number of cards in a stack is known. For example, in the gazettes of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. Sho 56-45196 and Hei 7-35210, a card issuer 100 shown in FIG. 8 is disclosed. The card issuer 100 is slidably equipped with a press plate 130 in a hopper 120 having a length L in width, which is slightly shorter than a length of a card 110. At a card outlet 180 of the hopper 120, a feeding roller 140 is disposed in a state where a part of the circumferential surface of the feeding roller 140 projects inside the hopper. A separator 150 is disposed in the hopper 120, and this separator 150 is disposed in such a manner that a tip thereof is separated from an outer circumference of the feeding roller 140, spaced with an interval equivalent to a thickness of one card. The card 110 is inserted in the hopper 120 to a wall 120a along a card feeding direction of the hopper 120 in an orientation where a tip thereof contacts the feeding roller 140. The card 110 is always pressed toward the feeding roller 140 by a press plate 130. A pressure imparted to the press plate 130 is obtained by disposing springs 160 between a wall portion of the hopper 120 and the press plate 130.
When the feeding roller 140 rotates, the card 110 at the uppermost portion is sent out by a frictional force of the feeding roller 140. In this case, as shown in FIG. 9, as the card 110 is sent out, it begins to rotate with its contact point with the feeding roller 140 as a rotational center. Finally, the card 110 is discharged through a feeding path 170.
The above-described card issuer 100 adopts a system in which the card 110 at the uppermost portion is selected from a large number of the cards 110 stacked in a vertical direction. Further, there is known another card issuer in which a card at the lower most portion is selected one by one. In the card issuer of this system, a card located at the lowermost portion is made to contact a feeding roller (or a feeding belt) similar to that of the card issuer 100. Thus, one card is selected by a frictional force or extruded by use of an extrusion member.
Also in the gazette of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 7-53068, a card issuer 200 shown in FIG. 10 is disclosed. In the card issuer 200, a feeding roller 221 of a cassette 220 is rotated by a motor 222 in a direction where a card 210 is drawn to a floor surface 224 (arrow direction in the drawing). Then, among the stacked cards 210 pressed with a pressure P by a press member 225, the forefront card 210 contacting the feeding roller 221 is extruded by the frictional force of the feeding roller 221 with an angle in a direction of a floor surface opposite from the press member 225. The card 210 passes under the feeding roller 221 bending in J-character shape as shown in FIG. 11, advances forward along a floor surface 224 and is discharged from a feeding port 226.
Both of the above-described card issuers 100 and 200 feed cards by frictional forces of the feeding rollers (140 and 221). Besides these, a card issuer adopting a system called a suction system is put into practical use. This card issuer suctions a card at the uppermost portion of stacked cards to take out the card.
There are a variety of cards handled by the card issuers. For example, there are a prepaid card, a cash card, a credit card and the like. The prepaid card does not have embosses on a surface thereof. Accordingly, the prepaid card can be easily separated and issued by the above-described conventional card issuers. However, in the case of the cash card and the credit card, each of which has embosses formed on a surface thereof, it is not easy to select one card from a plurality of stacked cards. Such embosses are typically made so as to mark a serial number of the card. Accordingly, in serial numbers of cards adjacent to each other in a stacked state, only the respective last numbers are different from each other, and the embosses forming the other characters overlap each other. For this reason, such overlapped embosses interlock and present resistance, and it is not easy to select one card from stacked embossed cards.
In the card issuer 100 shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, which is disclosed in the gazettes of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. Sho 56-45196 and Hei 7-35210, it is assumed that a plurality of the cards 110 rotate keeping an overlapped state with a contact point thereof with the feeding roller 140 as a center. In this case, it is necessary to apply a considerable feeding force at the feeding roller 140 in order to release an overlap of the plurality of cards 110. However, this force also increases card to card friction due to the overlap of the embosses. Moreover, even if the overlap can be released, since the cards 110 are rubbed with each other by a strong frictional force, the surfaces of the cards 110 may be scratched. Furthermore, in the case where the overlap cannot be released, a plurality of overlapped cards 110 cannot pass through the narrow card outlet 180, leading to a malfunction of the card issuer 100.
In the above described system in which a card at the lowermost portion among stacked cards is selected by a feeding roller and the like, there exists a problem similar to the above. A card weight is one of the factors causing card to card friction due to the overlap of the card embosses. Since a load applied to the cards in the lower layer becomes larger when the number of the stacked cards is increased, the overlap friction becomes significant due to the increased load. When the number of the stacked cards is reduced, the overlap friction of the embosses becomes light, thus the problem that the card issue is disabled due to the overlap of the embosses is avoided. However, in this case, there occurs another problem, that is, troublesome maintenance that the frequency of replacing cards for the card issuer must be increased.
Moreover, in the card issuer 200 shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, which is disclosed in the gazette of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 7-53068, it is a precondition that the card 210 is bent in a J-character shape. Accordingly, the card issuer 200 is not suitable as a card issuer for cards having high rigidity, such as a cash card and a credit card. Even if the card issuer 200 is applied to the cash card or the credit card, a feeding force of the feeding roller 221 must be considerably increased. This added force also functions to increase the overlap friction of the embosses similarly to the previous example. Even if the overlap can be released, since the cards 210 are rubbed with each other by a strong frictional force, the surfaces of the cards 210 can be scratched.
The card issuer of the suction system has a basic problem that a suction system thereof is large. The overlap friction of the card embosses may be caused by the card weight as described above. Specifically, since the load applied to the cards in the lower layer becomes large when the number of the stacked cards is increased, the overlap friction becomes significant due to the increased load. Since the card issuer of the suction system suctions the card at the uppermost portion of the stacked cards, an overlap of a card at the upper layer in a state of just being stacked is light. Since the card issuer of the suction system makes a suction force function to the card at the uppermost portion, there is no problem due to the overlap of the embosses where the card located in the upper layer is suctioned. However, since the overlap friction of the embosses is significant in the cards located in the lower layer, there is a possibility to suction a plurality of cards as the selecting of the cards proceeds. Moreover, the cards may be attached to each other by static electricity in some cases. In order to prevent the overlap of the plurality of the cards, a method can be conceived in which cards to be suctioned are vibrated to release an overlap thereof. However, since vibrating means must be provided to execute this method, such an apparatus becomes expensive.
As described above, the conventional, inexpensive card issuer cannot consistently select one card from a stack having a large number of the cards having embosses.
With the foregoing problems in mind, it is an object of the present invention to provide a card issuer, which is capable of accurately selecting one card from a holder where a plurality of cards having optional embosses formed thereon are stacked.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a card issuer at a low cost.
In order to solve the foregoing problems, the present inventors experimented in selecting cards by varying the number of stacked cards having embosses. The card issuer used in the experiment adopted a system in which the card at the lowermost portion is selected from a plurality of cards stacked in a vertical direction.
As a result of the experiment, in the case of the current cash card or credit card, it was found that if the number of the stacked cards is less than about 20 to 30, it was possible to constantly select the card at the lowermost portion among the cards stacked in a vertical direction irrespective of the form of the embosses. In the case of the card issuer adopting the system in which the card at the lowermost portion among the cards stacked in a vertical direction is selected, the concerned card is selected by a frictional force between the card and a belt (or roller) generated by driving the belt made to contact the card to be selected. In this case, it is necessary to press the card to the belt by a predetermined pressure. When the cards are stacked, a load corresponding to the number of the stacked cards is applied to the card at the lowermost portion, which is to be selected. However, in the case of the card having embosses formed thereon, when this load is excessive, an overlap of the embosses becomes significant, resulting in difficulty of selecting a single card. The above-described number of 20 to 30 is the number in which the frictional force required for selecting the card is obtained and a condition where the card cannot be selected due to the overlap of the embosses does not occur.
According to the above-described result, when the number of the cards stacked in the card issuer is set to 20 to 30, a condition where the card cannot be selected due to the overlap of the embosses does not occur. However, when the number of the stacked cards is set to about 20 to 30, it is necessary to frequently replace cards for the card issuer. In other words, when the number of the cards stacked in the card issuer is about 20 to 30, it hinders an efficiency of a maintenance operation.
With the foregoing problems in mind, the present inventors studied means for preventing the state where the card cannot be selected due to the overlap of the embosses and for securing the efficiency of the maintenance operation. As a result, the present inventors found that it is effective to constantly limit a load applied to the card to be selected by stacking the cards. For example, in the case where the number of the entire stacked cards is set to a hundred, a load applied to the card at the lowermost portion is limited to the equivalent to that of the twenty five cards, and the load of the residual seventy five cards is not translated to the entire surface of cards at the lowermost portion, especially to the area thereof where the embosses are formed. In the case where the card at the lowermost portion is selected, the card is replaced with one from the residual seventy five cards.
According to the present invention, a card issuer, which sequentially issues stacked cards, comprises: a first stack portion in which the number of stacked cards to be issued is regulated at a predetermined value or less; a second stack portion, which stacks cards for replacing selected cards therewith to the first stack portion in the case where the card stacked in the first stack portion is selected; and selection means for selecting a card stacked in the first stack portion.
According to the card issuer of the present invention described above, the number of the cards stacked in the first stack portion is regulated at a predetermined value or less. Accordingly, a load applied to the card located at the lowermost portion by the other stacked cards can be controlled. In the case of the stacked cards having embosses formed thereon, the number of the cards stacked in the first stack portion may be set in order that a resistance due to the overlap of the embosses is not likely to prevent selection of the cards.
In consideration of the overlap of the embosses, it is difficult to stack a large number of cards only in the first stack portion. In the card issuer of the present invention, a second stack portion is provided. A desired number of the cards are stacked not only in the first portion, but in the second stack portion. Since the cards are sequentially selected and issued from the first stack portion, the cards are replaced from the second stack portion to the first stack portion.
When the selecting of the cards is repeated and the number of the cards stacked in the first stack portion falls below the predetermined value or less, the frictional force for selecting the card may not be provided only by the weight of the stacked cards in some cases. In such a case, a separate weight can be applied, capable of applying a predetermined load. The predetermined load is set (in combination with the weight of a maximum number of cards) to a range where the overlap friction of the embosses does not become excessive.
In the present invention, the card issuer can take a form in which the cards are stacked in a vertical direction (one above another), and the second stack portion is disposed above the first stack portion. Moreover, the card issuer for issuing the cards having the embosses formed thereon can be constructed in such a manner that a weight of cards stacked in the second stack portion is applied to an area of the cards in the first stack portion, away from the sensitive area of the card (where the embosses are formed). The reason for allowing this arrangement is as follows. Even if the load by the cards stacked in the second stack portion is applied to the cards stacked in the first stack portion, if the load is applied to the area where the embosses are not formed, the overlap friction of the embosses is not promoted. Furthermore, in the card issuer of the present invention, replacement of the cards from the second stack portion to the first stack portion may be performed by gravity.
According to the present invention, there is provided a card processor, which comprises: a card stacker for stacking cards in a vertical direction where the cards optionally have embossed areas; control means for controlling within a predetermined range, a load applied to the embossed area of the card located at the lowermost portion; and selection means for issuing the card located at the lowermost portion among the cards stacked in the card stacker.
According to the above-described card processor, the load applied to the embossed area of the card located at the lowermost portion can be controlled within a predetermined range. If the controlled load range is set within a range where the overlap of the embosses does not hinder the selecting of the card, the card can be selected smoothly. In the card processor of the present invention, the applied load can be controlled within a predetermined range even after the card located at the lowermost portion is selected by the issuing means.
The present invention provides a card stacker, which is effective for use of the above described card issuer and card processor of the present invention. Specifically, the card stacker of the present invention is a card stacker for stacking a plurality of cards stacked in a vertical direction, which comprises: a holding floor for holding the cards in a vertical direction; side walls for regulating a horizontal position of the cards, the side walls being erected from the holding floor; a card stack area for stacking the cards, the card stack area being formed by the holding floor and the side walls; and a projection, projecting into the card stack area, the projection being disposed at a position of a predetermined height of the side wall in the card stack direction.
In the card stacker of the present invention, the projection has a function for engaging one edge of the card. And, in the case where the card stacker is a card stacker for stacking cards having embosses formed thereon, it is desirable that the projection is formed on the side wall, which is close to the area where the embosses of the stacked cards are formed, on the side wall adjacent to the long side of the cards. With such a construction, weight of the card engaged on the projection and the cards stacked above the engaged card are prevented from being applied to the area of the embosses of the cards stacked below the projection.
Moreover, in the card stacker of the present invention, it is desirable that a portion of the projection, which engages the card, constitutes a slant surface.
These and other objects will be apparent to one skilled in the art from the following drawings and detailed description of the invention.